Green energy won’t keep us warm (From York Press)

Sounds like a good argument why we need lots of small scale alternatives - relying on gas that is now going to be shipped from Saudi Arabia as well as coming by pipeline from Russia (where they need it even more than we do!) doesnt sound like a secure energy policy to me. Nick doesnt even mention solar, wave and water power, just likes to tilt at windmills, Don Quixote style.

Windmills are here to stay - get over it!

The thinking in this letter is too muddled to grapple with. Newscritic is right, these people will get used to it in time.

greenmonkey, sounds like if anything we urgently need a debate in the UK on our energy needs and as to why we have been decarbonising and if we should in the future. The time for debate is not over and there never has been a consensus in reality.
newscritic, you are right, windmills are here to stay, the cost of removing them for recycling would be too great so they will remain a carbuncle on the landscape.
Jezreel, they will have to get used to it as you say because they are having it whether they want it or not, regardless of efficiency.
As far as renewables are concerned, we all know how useless and unsightly wind turbines are but what about solar panels? They are rather like trying to grow Pineapples in the Arctic and give you less energy when you need it most and most energy when you need it least. These two renewables are where most of our money has been wasted while 80% efficient hydro energy has the least investment. Our Green led government will lead us into the dark ages, with or without Huhne!

ColdAsChristmas wrote:
greenmonkey, sounds like if anything we urgently need a debate in the UK on our energy needs and as to why we have been decarbonising and if we should in the future. The time for debate is not over and there never has been a consensus in reality.
newscritic, you are right, windmills are here to stay, the cost of removing them for recycling would be too great so they will remain a carbuncle on the landscape.
Jezreel, they will have to get used to it as you say because they are having it whether they want it or not, regardless of efficiency.
As far as renewables are concerned, we all know how useless and unsightly wind turbines are but what about solar panels? They are rather like trying to grow Pineapples in the Arctic and give you less energy when you need it most and most energy when you need it least. These two renewables are where most of our money has been wasted while 80% efficient hydro energy has the least investment. Our Green led government will lead us into the dark ages, with or without Huhne!

I think you are missing the point in all this.

Coal and gas will continue to be our main energy supply for a long time.

Windmills, wave, solar etc. will be continually improved and will be a valuable addtion to the national grid 2.

Windmill design and enregy output will improve for the windmills at sea and any on land, though I agree huge windmills in anyones own backyard is not welcome.

This policy needs to be looked at and smaller more localised windmills could be used.

But in this era of uncertainty it is nice to know that we will at least have a back up energy supply which is in our own backyard.

Point taken newscritic but new windmill designs won't have any effect on wind strength or more to the point, no wind at all. The case remains for solar in that the sun won't stay in the sky any longer during our winter months, regardless of technology and we are a long way from developing technology to capture energy from moonlight etc.
If plans go ahead to shut down many of our coal power stations by 2015 then we are in serious trouble. As for back up in our own back yard, we have it. It is called Shale Gas and we have enough for decades as things stand. Perhaps even more to come.

ColdAsChristmas wrote:
Point taken newscritic but new windmill designs won't have any effect on wind strength or more to the point, no wind at all. The case remains for solar in that the sun won't stay in the sky any longer during our winter months, regardless of technology and we are a long way from developing technology to capture energy from moonlight etc.
If plans go ahead to shut down many of our coal power stations by 2015 then we are in serious trouble. As for back up in our own back yard, we have it. It is called Shale Gas and we have enough for decades as things stand. Perhaps even more to come.

I understand that in 5 years new magnetic systems will replace the unreliable mechanical gears on windmills during high winds and the energy output will shift upward from 10mw to 25mw per windmill offshore.

The offshore windfarms will increase in size and far out away from the shore picking up more wind activity.

Shale gas involves fracking and chemical pollution - they even admitted that the test fracking in Blackpool caused two earthquakes in the region last year.

The very best way to reduce energy costs and useage is not to use so much energy - we could vastly reduce commuting to work and shut down massive office complexes which waste huge amounts of energy.

New techniques regarding solar and oled's will vastly improve efficiency and practicality of these systems along with new cutting edge long lasting batteries and energy systems to power homes without outside sources such as power stations.

I wonder why they don't cover windmills with solar cells for additional energy? They could also place tidal wave syatems between the bases of the offshore windfarms.

My god there is some rubbish spouted on here.

1-Do you think at those Windymills will have their gearing changed? The increase in power will only be due to the size capable, not huge change in ratio.

2-10mw is about right, although I think you meant 10MW, which is a pie in the sky figure, the largest turbines being installed are 7MW and these run at 20-30% efficiency when running. So that makes them 1.4MW to 2.1MW these are for the largest offshore ones.

3-Fracking does indeed cause Earthquakes, how can it not. You are breaking through the rock.

4-OLEDs will not change anything, I think you should do some research before mentioning them with anything to do with Solar or efficiency. These are not the saviour. They may be great, but not for Energy.

5-Once subsidies are cut, which they have to be as they are unsustainable then there will be a shift back away from Wind to better renewables research.

6-You can never rely on Wind or Solar, due to the fact electrical demand will be ever increasing and the amount of electric these methods produce are tiny for the size of an installation. Also the demand for electricity is not determined by the strength of the sun of power of the wind.

Coldasxmas has a point when s/he mentions the imbalance of subsidy within the renewables sector. We are an island nation, a fact that has defined much of our historical development, and which now provides us with a colossal opportunity to harness the one source of power we can rely on for ever.

Yet almost the first act of the Coalition was to abandon the Severn barrage project - which could have provided 5% of the UK's energy output. And more importantly the project would have kickstarted further research in the field.

As it is there are many great ideas for harnessing tidal power on a smaller scale (lagoons etc), but they seem to be languishing for lack of investment. Sure, it all will cost money but I'd be willing to bet that it pales in comparision with the whole-life subsidy costs of nuclear power...

These are all stop gaps until they get nuclear fusion working, though no doubt moronic NIMBYs will try and stop that, too.

powerwatt wrote:
My god there is some rubbish spouted on here.

1-Do you think at those Windymills will have their gearing changed? The increase in power will only be due to the size capable, not huge change in ratio.

2-10mw is about right, although I think you meant 10MW, which is a pie in the sky figure, the largest turbines being installed are 7MW and these run at 20-30% efficiency when running. So that makes them 1.4MW to 2.1MW these are for the largest offshore ones.

3-Fracking does indeed cause Earthquakes, how can it not. You are breaking through the rock.

4-OLEDs will not change anything, I think you should do some research before mentioning them with anything to do with Solar or efficiency. These are not the saviour. They may be great, but not for Energy.

5-Once subsidies are cut, which they have to be as they are unsustainable then there will be a shift back away from Wind to better renewables research.

6-You can never rely on Wind or Solar, due to the fact electrical demand will be ever increasing and the amount of electric these methods produce are tiny for the size of an installation. Also the demand for electricity is not determined by the strength of the sun of power of the wind.

Firstly please do not mention God as we are talking earthly matters here so no need to dramatise things. And there is no need to sink to calling what I am saying as rubbish.

My reference to magnetic thingymebobs was in response to that high winds can currently destroy a windmill so they need to turn them off in high winds. Magnetic gearing will stop this.

The increase in output will be that the offshore windmills will increase in size and efficiency and who cares as no one will see them from land.

This quotation of efficiency is debatable and misses the point as the energy produced is still valuable and they will eventually store the energy on site for future useage or feed into national grid 2.

As far as fracking goes you seem keen to further destroy the environment with unknown consequences.

You obviously do not understand oleds and their potential and solar energy in Germany is running so high they are having to scale it back as their grid can't cope and you should look up about new solar techniques being researched and developed.

Again you misunderstand subsidies which as with all new projects tend to be expensive but as the technology and availability improves the subsidies are reduced - nuclear power is heavily subsidised and they never include the eventual clean-up costs and costs of any disasters.

There is little point in debating with you if you really believe there is no future in green technology as only a fool would do so as they ignore the already escalating production of such energy.

The use of efficient batteries and oleds will reduce exponentially the energy requirements of devices and therefore the green technology should be more than capable of matching the energy output in decades to come.

Prepare to see graphene cars that run for hundreds of miles on small batteries with rapid-charge energy points in roads and car parks and houses that do not require any input from the national grid.

Patience and optimism are good virtues to possess and green energy is here to stay - so give it time.